Tag: bats

From decoration ideas for creating “Satan’s Lair” to a very creepy walk on “Satan’s Trail” – this “Devil May Care” Dance will definitely be scary! Enjoy this Vintage Hallowe’en Idea…

Adopt a “Devil May Care” attitude about your Hallowe’en Dance! For all you know, he may. Judging from the appear­ance of the hall, he does!

Right from the pages of Dante1 comes the inspiration for this hall trim! There are thrills and chills in store for all who enter here!

To turn your hall into Satan’s lair, you will need the following material; (Quantities will depend on the size of your hall.) Flameproof Crepe Paper in the following colors: Black, Yellow, Amber, Orange, Medium Pink, Flame and National Red, Gray, White and Stone-Wall; Black streamers; black mat stock; white poster paint; medium weight wire; India ink; paste and tacks or a staple gun.
Make all cut outs ( smoke, rocks, bones, Satan, etc.) before you decorate the hall, so they will be ready to put in place at the last minute.

Cut smoke clouds (scale pattern at end) from Yellow, Pink and Gray Crepe Paper. Cut each Smoke cloud as in Fig. A. Paint “QUIVER ! QUAKE.”‘ with white poster paint on a strip of black mat stock to go over main entrance.

Wind long strips of wire around a broom stick to make coils that appear in doorway (Fig. B). When you trim the hall, stretch wires out, leav­ing wide coils as shown in Illustration. Tack wires at top to doorway 1 and at bottom to floor.

When you arrive at the hall for the actual business of putting up the trim, step ladders, staple guns (or masking tape), paste and pins will become part of your equipment. NOTE – If you cannot use tacks or staples on the walls, test it for masking tape before you start. Masking tape will not adhere on all surfaces. If this is the ease, you will have to eliminate the background and depend on cut-outs for your decorations.

Use 10″ wide strips of FLAMEPROOF Crepe Paper for the entire background. Starting at the top of the wall (7 or 8 feet from the floor), tack or staple as in Fig. C or fasten with masking tape as in Fig. D, strips of Stone-Wall Crepe around the wall.

Unfold and stretch fully, strips of Yellow Crepe Paper. Refold them to a 20″ width, and cut an irregular border across the top as in Fig. E. Overlap Stone-Wall strip to depth of border and fasten to wall as you did Stone-Wall strips.

Stretch each successive strip the same way and tack on at slightly varying angles, overlapping each strip Just a bit. Continue colors in this order; Amber, Orange, Medium Pink, Flame Red, ending in National Red. The last strip should come close to the floor.

Paste or pin cut-outs to the walls, using Illustrations as your guide.

Unroll and crush Black streamers, then drape them like withered vines, across the top of the stone wall. Loop smoke clouds out and pin or paste them tn bottom of wall along floor. Vary colors and arrange as in Illustration.

Satan, sitting on a rock in the corner, can be either the M.C. for the evening, dressed in character, or a stuffed effigy of the “Old Boy” himself; For a likeness, stuff a suit of long underwear with newspapers. Wire it so it will hold a realistic, position. Stretch and crush large sections of Red Crepe Paper and paste them over entire figure, to cover it completely. For head -stuff a paper bag and cover it with Red Crepe Paper. Cut features from Black and White Crepe Paper and paste in place. Wind wires with Black Crepe Paper and insert in head for horns. Satan’s cape is made from Black Crepe Paper. His fork is a real one.

The skull can be made just the same as the Devil’s head, substituting White Crepe Paper for Red. Wind chin in with a narrow band of crepe paper to make it narrow.

Long claw-like hand and bones are made of wires covered with White Crepe Paper and shaped as desired.

Dancing will supply most of the evening’s entertainment, but it does seem a shame not to have a genuine Horror Trail sometime during the evening when the setting is so perfect for it!

The following may start you off on the right trail:

If Satan is your M.C ., he will read the following lines, through an ampli­fier as the guests travel a prearranged trail. It is better to let them go in groups, several at one time. Be sure to blindfold each guest securely before the Journey starts. Suggestions for the trail will follow the story.

King Satan sat upon his throne Surrounded by flaming fires, His friends in fury danced about To watch the fate of liars!

Lo, you trembling wraiths, come forth His judgment to receive, Although you plead both long and hard There will be no reprieve.

Come, harken to his court the while By chance we may ascend Some other wayward soul to meet And warn them of this end.

His voice, metallic in its tone Our fearful ears accost, “Go forth, my bidding must be done, Or you will all be lost!

Walk barefoot through the haunted wood, On to the River Styx Cross on the damp and slimy stones Up to a wall of bricks.

The bat, or bawdy-bird, is the witches’ bird; and when they hover around it is the witches’ hour, when they have power over all human beings who are not shielded from their influence. A bat is therefore very generally considered a bird of evil omen, in many parts foretelling death.

Bats flying late in the evening, indicate fair weather.

Bats who squeak flying, tell of rain to-morrow.

If bats flutter and beetles fly about, there will be a fine morrow.

It is unlucky to kill a bat that flies into your room; it is a good omen if it lights for a moment on some object in the room.

If a bat flies into the kitchen and at once hangs on to the ceiling, it is lucky; but if it circles around twice before alighting, it is bad.

If, in trying to drive a bat out of the room, the creature should fly against a light or candle and put it out, it is a very bad omen.

If a bat flies into your house, look out for bedbugs.

Bats are regarded as unlucky; but the evil attending their coming into a house can be warded off, by catching them and hanging them over the door.

The name of the bat is never mentioned in India after nightfall; people who do, will lose all their property.

If a bat flies around the house three times in succession, it is a sign of bad luck.

In Scotland, if the bat, in flying rises, and then descends again east-ward, it is thought dangerous to go out of the house.

Some people think that bats fasten themselves in the hair, and that the hair would have to be clipped to remove them.

If a bat circles around your head three times, it presages a death.

The bat (a winged animal) was regarded by the Caribs as a good angel, which protected their dwellings at night; and it was accounted sacrilegious to kill one.

There existed formerly in Alsace, a curious belief that bats had the power to render the eggs of storks unfruitful.

You will die soon, if you kill a bat.

If, in the evening, you see a bat in the chimney, a misfortune is coming. (Belgium.)

In regard to the superstition that the bat is an omen of evil, a correspondent from Gloucestershire, England, writes: “A lady told me that three of her sisters had died, and that on each occasion a bat had flown into the house. But one evening a bat came in when everybody in the house was well, and there was no cause for anxiety at home or abroad. This they took for a good sign and believed the spell was broken, but that very night the cook died suddenly of heart-complaint, having gone to bed, as all believed, in her usual good health.”

It is believed in Italy, that the presence of bats will throw some people into convulsions. A physician, Antonio Vallisneri, relates a curious instance of this kind. He shut up a bat in a box in the room of the patient, who, on entering, although unaware of the presence of the bat, went into convulsions, and did not come out of them until the bat was removed.

At Polperro, Cornwall, the bat is thus addressed:

“Airy mouse, airy mouse! fly over myhead,
And you shall have a crust of bread;
And when I brew and when I bake,
You shall have a piece of my wedding cake.”